She's Baaack

Somehow I had never considered Cheney and Mamie Van Doren in the same thought pattern. Of course I liked Mamie, dumb blonde she wasn't.

Nipping and Tucking on Both Coasts - New York Times: "In Hollywood terms, we've reached an Indiana Jones crisis moment in our parlous protectorate. The cave is collapsing, the snakes are encroaching, the vehicles are exploding, the crushing ball is rolling down on us. The public has stopped buying the administration's sugary spin. The Washington Post reported yesterday that 80 percent of Americans — cutting across party lines — say sectarian violence makes civil war in Iraq likely. More than a third call it 'very likely.' Half also think the U.S. should begin withdrawing troops from Iraq, the poll found, and two-thirds say the president has no clear plan for Iraq.

The widespread resistance to the Dubai ports deal, even among newly fractious Republicans, indicates that Americans have lost faith in the president's competence — a faith shredded by the White House's obtuseness and lies on Katrina.

As Hollywood often does, the administration scorns introspection and originality. It sticks with the same worn themes: Stay the course. Victory's around the corner. Anyone who expresses skepticism is a defeatist, a softie on terrorism.

On 'Meet the Press' on Sunday, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iraq was 'going very, very well, from everything you look at.' And at a Pentagon briefing yesterday, Rummy, who should have resigned in shame long ago, tried to blame the press, echoing Gen. George Casey in saying: 'Much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation.'

He added, 'The steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists.'

After all the horrible mistakes in judgment the defense secretary has made — mistakes that have left our troops without proper backup and armor, created an inept and corrupt occupation, and confused soldiers into thinking torture was O.K. — it takes humongous gall to suggest that the problem is really the reporters."

The problem is anyone who disagrees with the party line. Anyone. And the closer it gets to the end the more maniacal, the more disconnected from reality, the more clinically diagnosable they will become, but nothing will be done because everyone will be so cowed and traumatized that we will have become a nation of sheep ripe for the shearing.

At least Indy would be capable of making up a plan as he goes along. A successful plan.

Tags: Dowd, Iraq, Rumsfeld, Hollywood, Indiana Jones